MacKinnon: Riverboat gambler Jones loses key gambles for Eskimos

AJ Guyton, right, is tackled by Deron Mayo (42) and Jamar Wall (29) as the Edmonton Eskimos are defeated 26-22 by the Calgary Stampeders in CFL football at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, July 24, 2014. (Photo by Bruce Edwards / Edmonton Journal)Photo by
Bruce Edwards Bruce Edwards

EDMONTON - Inside the seemingly small “c” conservative exterior that Edmonton Eskimos head coach Chris Jones presents to the world beats the heart of a riverboat gambler.

Don’t be fooled by the Tennessee drawl, the 1950s haircut, the name-rank-and-serial-number approach to what we’ll laughingly call discourse.

Jones, the defensive specialist, is secretly from Mississippi. He never met a gadget play he doesn’t like, he never saw a situation too fraught with danger to take a chance. He wants to roll the dice.

He rolled them, all right, and he and the Eskimos lost 26-22 to the Calgary Stampeders on Thursday night. Whether they lost because Jones gambled depends on your sensibility.

For all his attention to detail, his endless film study, his obsession with Xs and Os, Jones has a fair amount of Bill Cosby in him, drawing up plays in the sand using a Coke bottle top, a piece of glass and a pebble.

How else to explain some of the creativity he threw at the Stampeders at Commonwealth Stadium when the entire 40,066 fans in attendance were gambling the grocery money to try to win the $348,534 50/50 payout. Some fans were shelling out hundreds of dollars for tickets.

Despite the casino-like feel that prevailed at Commonwealth Stadium, Jones’s third-down gamble with 26 seconds left in the first half stood out for butt-naked risk-taking.

On that play, Eskimos punter Grant Shaw, standing nine yards deep in his own end zone, pitched to Aaron Grymes, who scooting past him on an end around. The defensive back ran 10 yards to his own 16-yard line, inches shy of the first down.

Turnover on downs.

The very next play, Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell hit Jeff Fuller in the corner of the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown as Calgary, outplayed the entire first half, fashioned a 20-13 lead.

Ouch.

Wrong time, wrong place to inject some razzle-dazzle, sniffed some purists. It wasn’t that long ago then-Eskimos head coach Tom Higgins tried an ill-advised third down gamble involving a Sean Fleming pass to fullback Mike Bradley in the Western Division semifinal that may have contributed to Higgins losing his job.

Lighten up said, among others TSN analyst Milt Stegall, noted for his razzle-dazzle as a Hall of Fame receiver for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. For the record, I’m with Stegall. This is the CFL; what’s wrong with some calculated fun?

I like the fake by Chris Jones...take a chance, it's just football, and he knows he has a great defense. I guess coaching is not n my future

“None,” Reilly said, asked if he had qualms about that play call. “That’s our coach’s decision and we’ve rolled the dice plenty of times and came out on top. So, I’ve got no problem with that.”

Stegall and others know, of course, that Jones is a Don Matthews disciple. He learned to be unpredictable and take calculated chances from the master.

In Year 1 of his career as a head coach, Jones has put that into action.

In Week 1 against the B.C. Lions, Jones called a third-down gamble to keep a key drive alive. The Eskimos scored a touchdown on that drive.

Then Jones called a short kickoff, which was successful, although the Eskimos then went two-and-out.

In the Eskimos’ win over Winnipeg last week, backup quarterback Pat White took a direct snap on third down and ran for a first down.

On Thursday, the Eskimos ran a play where Reilly gestured for a receiver to re-position himself even as the ball was snapped directly to tailback Kendall Lawrence, who scampered off with the ball. He gained only four yards, but in gambling, perhaps it’s the thought that counts.

It’s certainly the case that if you plant a thought in the mind of the defence that anything might happen, you might take the edge off their aggressiveness.

Look, the Eskimos didn’t lose Thursday night owing to a third-down gamble. They lost because of a cluster of mistakes: a fumbled punt that led to a field goal; a blocked punt that led to a touchdown; an interception that led to another field goal.

That’s 13 points on turnovers that sabotaged another splendid performance by the Eskimos defence.

Fred Stamps dropped at least two key balls that would have helped drives. Grymes and Odell Willis both dropped clear interceptions deep in Calgary territory late in the second half.

I shudder to think how much taxpayers’ money is being spent to defend Premier John Horgan and ...

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